71 pages • 2 hours read
Bethany WigginsStung
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Character Analysis
Fiona Tarsis (Fo)
Fiona’s characterization parallels the gradual revelation of backstory in Stung. Suffering from amnesia after four years in a comatose state, Fiona is initially an unreliable narrator with regard to her own character traits. Fiona experiences an increasing desire to find firm footing in her strange new circumstances, but upsetting revelations foreshadow how the foundations of her identity are unstable. The reader initially shares in Fiona’s lack of groundedness; even Fo’s name is a mystery until Chapter 2, which contributes to the novel’s mood of confusion and chaos. The reader is left to wonder if Fiona knew her own name before being recognized, or if she needed to hear it aloud as a reassuring mark of identity.
As the novel’s protagonist, Fiona struggles to reestablish her sense of self. Even details of her appearance are presented as circumstantial: She has long blond hair, but Arrin saws it off with a knife; she is “fat” to Arrin, who is starving, but Fiona comments several time on her “concave” stomach. She identifies as female and struggles to feel at home in her suddenly post-pubescent body, but she must pretend to be male for her own safety. Even the clothing she wears is quickly switched out for Arrin’s in the sewer, and later, she does not recognize her underwear. Subsequent clothing changes demonstrate Fiona’s continuing fight for identity, as she must opt for articles that do not fit well and do not appeal to her, such as with Bowen’s jeans and her rejection of the sundress. Personality traits are equally shifting throughout the story: Fiona presents as immature in some cases, such as when she sticks her tongue at Bowen; at other times, such as when she connects with Jonah, she is full of mature kindness, concern, and empathy.
Fiona’s most consistent qualities are her love of family and her piano playing ability. Her talent for music is identifiable throughout, as she “hears” classical pieces in the drip of water and recognizes the composition when Bowen plays guitar; she also thinks through complex pieces as if she is playing them when she seeks calm. Ironically, though, these facets of Fiona’s character present emotional obstacles rather than relief: Her parents are likely dead, Jonah may not survive, and she may never play piano again.
Stung is loosely compared to the traditional Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, in that Fiona, like Aurora/Briar Rose, awakens to a changed world after a long passage of time elapses, and must contend with the unsettling feelings of displacement and muddled reality. Fiona does display a princess-like persona occasionally, eager for romance and sometimes allowing others to lead her submissively out of danger, as with Arrin in the sewers and Bowen in the militia camp. By the novel’s climax, however, Fiona rejects the princess stereotype and becomes a more complex character, one who reacts brashly at times and makes human mistakes but maintains hope. Ultimately, Fo must protect herself and fight off those who intend to kill her in the pit; she benefits from the protection of Jonah and Bowen, but their help is not enough. She works to save herself at these crucial moments, and when she does, Wiggins reveals Fiona’s potential for even greater self-determination. Fo grows up very quickly in a short amount of time—four years’ worth in a few days—and consequently her arc and self-discovery lead to dramatic changes in her comprehension about herself and her new world.
Dreyden Bowen
Bowen is a complex, dynamic ally and love interest to Fiona. He is the militia member who plays guitar and talks kindly to Fo before she is in the electromagnetic cuffs, and so represents both a connection to the old world and a capability for kindness meant to elicit reader sympathy. Bowen has a tough and exacting side as well; he behaves cruelly when he thinks Fo is a male beast and anxiously exerts control in his brand-new job as guardian over the Level Ten prisoner. In these behaviors, Bowen symbolizes the way negative emotions like paranoia, fear, and pride can inhibit a person’s aptitude for understanding, tolerance, and empathy. Once he realizes who Fo is, Bowen quickly sees that he has not only an obligation to help her but an opportunity to learn why she is not “turning.” He then fully embraces his inclination to show kindness and compassion instead of forcefulness and coercion.
Bowen’s harsh and bitter side stems from the traumatic experience of losing his mother to Raiders and having to shoot her to save her from the misery and pain of captivity. The betrayal by his older brother Duncan also significantly contributes to Bowen’s emotional trauma. Bowen is eager to the point of desperation to keep Fo safe for several reasons: He is falling in love with her; she is one of few women of childbearing potential in this dark society; and most of all, he wants to redeem himself for his inability to keep his mother safe by doing so now with Fiona.
Bowen comes close to death when Fiona shoots him at close range; his own quick thinking plus Tommy’s heroic strength help him to contend somewhat with the wound, but in a gender role-reversal of the Sleeping Beauty myth, it is Fo’s kisses that save Bowen’s life. More figuratively, Fo’s presence and love bring Bowen to “wake up” at the end of the novel: He shows a renewed joy and gusto for life with Fo’s survival, which he puts to good use in sharing the news of a cure with all those outside the wall.
Jonah Tarsis
Jonah is ironically portrayed as the initial threat and antagonist in Stung, as he pursues Fo through their ruined home in the opening chapter. Gradually, he is revealed as a beast who took 10 full doses of the vaccine, but whose soft spot in his heart for his twin sister survived. Jonah escapes the lab before he can be placed in a medically induced coma, which his mother requested after he killed his father without intending to. He survives on his own for four years before becoming the “pet” beast of the Raiders. Under their control, he has the chance to reveal Fiona’s close presence the night of the street meeting between Governor Soneschen and the Raiders, but he does not. This concealment is an early indication of Jonah’s enduring free will and conscience.
Jonah is characterized as a sweet boy who likes Star Wars in Fiona’s early flashbacks; by the end, he is bleeding, broken, and dying. His tragic character arc symbolizes victimization of innocents trapped and brutalized by secret, unethical, greedy, or overreaching plans and schemes, such as or Governor Soneschen’s immoral desire to benefit from the blood of beasts and hide a cure. Jonah’s survival at the end of the novel is left ambiguous, helping to create narrative momentum for the sequel novel.
Arrin/Arris
Fiona believes that Arris is “Arrin” for most of the story; Arrin is slight, feminine, and wily, with savage survival skills and cunning. She steals Fo’s minimal amount of food and threatens to kill her if she will not help release Arrin’s brother; later Fo learns Arrin lied and planned to sell that “brother” to the pit. Arrin displays qualities of both represents both the Trickster and Shapeshifter character archetypes in the novel, sometimes seeming to help Fo, and at other times in obvious conflict with the novel’s protagonist. Arrin/Arris lies, misleads, and tricks Fo, eventually selling her to the black market under the guide of aiding Fo’s escape. In the fighting pit, Arrin is revealed to be Arris, a boy on the verge of turning to a full-fledged beast whom Fo will never be able to trust. Fo fights Arris off in the pit and suffers for four days afterward because Arris slashed her arm with a poison-tipped knife, a final act of deception. Arris first appears in the novel as Fo’s rescuer, helping her hide in the sewer from raiders; this introduction belies Arris’s true intentions and indicates that Fo cannot trust her assumptions about this new world. Arris lies lifeless in the pit at the end of the battle, supposedly killed by Jonah.
Governor Jacoby Soneschen
The novel’s primary antagonistic figure is Governor Jacoby Soneschen. In the novel’s denouement, Fiona learns that Soneschen actively murdered any children cured Dr. Grayson, except for her. Soneschen hides the cure for the vaccine side effects at all costs, as his power is dependent on keeping the residents behind the wall afraid and hateful of the vaccinated “Fecs.” He attempts to silence Fiona by way of Arris, the Raiders, and the pit fight; when he is unsuccessful in each of those endeavors, he simply lunges at Fo himself. Bowen shoots him, and under the custody of the militia, he is imprisoned by the end of the falling action. A brief concluding chapter, functioning as an epilogue, reveals that Soneschen escapes, paving the way for his potential return in the sequel novel. Wiggins uses Soneschen to explore the motives and tactics of corrupt leadership and emphasize that the same institutions that precipitated the apocalyptic crisis cannot be trusted to resolve it.
